Collection of Lady Muriel Barclay-Harvey (d. 1981). Her sale, London, Sotheby’s, June 11, 1947, lot 13: “NICOLAS LANCRET. A Pastoral Scene: in a Park Landscape, two young women, in pink and blue dresses, seated, and a young flautist standing behind them, left; a young man in white dress and a crimson cape is dancing, right; tall trees behind the group on the left, and a river spanned by a stone bridge in the background 34in. by 41in.” Sold for £620 to P. Littler according to Sotheby’s price list.

Despite the attempted attributions in the past—to Lancret, Mercier, probably others, perhaps even Watteau—the picture is only a pastiche, one that draws upon several well-known Watteau compositions.

A Pastoral Scene (detail).

Benoît Audran after Watteau, L’Enchanteur (detail), engraving.

The two women seated in the foreground of the painting copy figures in Audran’s engraving after Watteau’s L’Enchanteur. In addition, the distant bridge and arcade are based on the architectural elements in the background of Watteau’s composition.

The pasticheur responsible for this painting cannot be identified by name. Nonetheless, there is a resemblance between this work and other pastiches after Watteau, such as the fête galante in the collection of the Earl of Pembroke. Moreover, these paintings share a provenance that can be traced to England, in some instances even to the early eighteenth century. While it is generally difficult to assign the work of Watteau’s pasticheurs to specific artists, it is possible that this one was English, but not Philippe Mercier—to whom such paintings have occasionally been attributed.

When this picture was sold in 1947, it was accompanied by a pendant, likewise attributed to Lancret, of the same size, and depicting a comparable fête galante. The pendants were separated and sold separately to different buyers.